The Marry Month of May

My ADD will be even worse than ever, because it is the month that my baby boy, Matt, is getting married on the 19th. His bride to be, Justine, is an oncology nurse at Northwestern, and she will have a beautiful day. I am working to make the stars align. Uh-oh.

As Mother of the Groom, my duties are fairly limited, but I am dedicated to making this as stress free for all involved as I can. To that end, I have taken on idiot proof chores like embellishing frames with rhinestones for the table numbers, stringing some jewelry for the girls, making the tent cards for the table assignments, and assembling out of town bags. I managed to plan the rehearsal dinner and even went paperless with the invites. Of course, my main role is to nag Matt into compliance. He loves that.

What could go wrong, right? Probably most everything! I have already lowered the bar for myself: a brunch at the house post wedding is being move to the hotel. This allows me to be less fixated on the gardens and the mayhem of having all the boys get dressed here, then cleaning up and looking pristine at 10:00 AM. That's how I roll.

But so far, I have the frames finished. I have really cute bags for the out of town stuff, now I just need to get the stuff. And stuff them. I made a trip to Paper Source, and so I have the goods to make cool tented cards. I am not a calligrapher, and so I am looking for fancy fonts to print the seating assignments onto strips of fancy paper, which I will cut and glue at the last moment. I believe I will need a consultation with my tech team (Pat, Mike and Matt) to find the Font of My Dreams. But soon I will have the final guest list to enter into a label program. YIKES! I cannot let the kids down! Truth told, I like last minute busy work- it calms my nerves.

Last night my daughters-in-law and I went to get our respective dressed fitted. The girls each had a little challenge- Kathryn will be 20 weeks pregnant in a decidedly unmaternity dress, and Rachel is petite, and the tiered bottom puddled on the floor. The dress is strapless, and as the night wears on, they both fear it could be topless. The challenge of perfection is in the capable hands of Sylvia now. My dress, selected from Dillard's online because it stretches and had no real fit, also has a challenge: When I raise my arms, the entire bodice rises above my boobs- and stays. NOT what I was going for. So I will be tacked to my bra, taped to my skin, and I may choose to glue my arms to my sides. Steve would be thrilled at that solution, since it would preclude dancing. He hates to dance, and he hates to watch my epileptic stylings when I hit the floor with friends and family. I say a party isn't a party unless there is some gyrating.

I will provide a guided tour of all this marry-ment after the fact, but for now, please excuse my fits and starts at this place. I will come here if I can to ruminate- but my book club is reading Stephen King's 11-22-63, all 900 pages of it. Since we meet three days post wedding, I need to allocate some time to this task, too. And my father in law, Roger is attending his first Dahl boy wedding. He arrives on the 15th, and it'd be rude to read instead of showing him a good time! He can help me decorate the church. Or not.

The main thing I have to remember is that on May 20th, the kids will be happily married, heading to Hawaii. I will have joyous memories. And Walter Dahldog as a houseguest, I'm guessing. (another reason NOT to obsess about the garden)

They newlyweds will embark upon the same arc of life, love, good and bad, that we all navigate. The wedding is just a kick off to the much more challenging and rewarding journey ahead.